ENThis article presents an analysis of Baltic (particularly, Lithuanian) labor migration into the interior of the USSR during the late Soviet period. The authors discuss how these Baltic labor migrants participated in the creation of infrastructure for the northern oilgas complex in western Siberia’s Tyumen region. The data collected and subsequent research suggest that the Lithuanian road and construction industry workers, and their accompanying organizational structures, managed to establish a kind of autonomy that allowed them to maintain close links with their homelands, while also creating a role for themselves in the eyes of the local population as representatives of ‘European’ culture. [From the publication]